Consultants outline parking, TDM strategies to guide San Carlos downtown plan

Consultants for the downtown specific plan told the Downtown Technical Advisory Committee on a recent meeting that managing parking effectively will be the city’s best tool to reduce traffic and support a pedestrian‑oriented downtown.

"The best TDM strategy is actually effective parking management," said Brian Canipa, a principal planner with WRT’s Santa Rosa office, as he presented occupancy and inventory surveys of nearly 3,100 on‑ and off‑street spaces. The consultant said the study found peak downtown occupancy of about 60% at noon on a Thursday, while some lots and blocks were fully occupied and others showed substantial unused capacity.

Canipa walked the committee through a phased approach. Short‑term operational measures include repurposing underused capacity (for example, making the Wheeler garage second floor available as free 10‑hour employee parking), changing on‑street time‑limit hours to reflect later evening activity, expanding the usability of employee permit programs, improving wayfinding and online parking information, and pursuing voluntary shared‑parking agreements with underused agency or private lots such as the Caltrain lot.

Midterm strategies would add bicycle infrastructure and, when justified by occupancy thresholds, a careful public parking pricing program. Canipa said pricing would be deployed only after demand consistently exceeds a data threshold (the presentation used a 70% block occupancy trigger as an example) and recommended that meter revenues remain in the district where they were collected.

The consultants recommended enforcement changes to make rules effective. "You can change all the regulations you want. If there’s no enforcement, it probably won’t change behavior," Canipa said, urging the city to consider in‑house community service officers or a third‑party vendor and to adopt automated license‑plate recognition to improve compliance.

The presentation reviewed legal and regulatory context. Because California law (AB2097) reduces minimum parking requirements near major transit stops, Canipa said, the city should adopt parking maximums aligned with MTC transit‑oriented community guidance and use zoning tools (district caps, public‑access requirements for privately provided parking) to shape outcomes. The team also proposed standalone bicycle parking minimums, expanded accessible (ADA) spaces tied to streetscape changes, and unbundled parking pricing for new residential developments where appropriate.

Committee members raised equity and access concerns. Several participants stressed that San Carlos has historically avoided paid meters and worried about asking long‑time homeowners without garages to pay for residential permits. Others flagged safety and circulation challenges that depress use of remote lots and structures at night. Canipa acknowledged those behavioral and perception barriers and said many strategies are aimed at shifting long‑term parkers (employees) rather than short‑term patrons.

Staff (Lisa) closed by noting procedural next steps: the streetscape master plan had been recommended by the Planning and Transportation Commission and would go to City Council on April 28; design work for the 700 block and Harrington Park would be advanced if the council directs implementation; and a public draft of the downtown specific plan was targeted for late July with hearings later in the summer.

The DTAC discussion did not include a formal vote; consultants and staff said further decisions (for example, whether to deploy parking pricing) would be City Council determinations informed by ongoing analysis and community input.